Currently, a variety of devices are known for cutting a solidified egg. As used herein, a solidified egg is an egg that has been heated so that the yolk and white have become a solidified mass and that has had the shell removed. Typically, a solidified egg is an egg that has been hard-boiled and then de-shelled so that the white, and yolk therein, can be handled as a mass. Devices for slicing the solidified egg, referred to as egg slicers, are used to divide the solidified egg so that egg portions may be used in recipes or salads. An egg slicer may be preferred to hand-cutting the egg as a cleaner and simpler method with greater precision. As a convention used herein, the term egg mass refers to the entire solidified egg without the shell, and egg portion refers to a cut or sliced piece of the solidified egg.
There are numerous configurations for egg slicers. Some of these egg slicers provide a first set of cutting members, either blades are wires, that are pivotally attached to a base holder on which the egg mass rests. This allows the egg mass to be cut into strips or sections along one axis of the egg. In order to provide a cubing feature, some egg slicers further include a second set of cutting members, also pivotally attached to the base holder. After the first set of cutting members passes through the egg mass, the second set is then used to cut the strips into egg cubes. It should be noted that the term cube as used herein is imprecise as the two sets of cutting members make orthogonal cuts in a substantially vertical direction, though no cutting members are employed to make a third cut in the horizontal direction. One problem with these devices is that two sets of blades or cutting members are required, which makes the egg slicer more expensive to manufacture and increases the amount of labor in cleaning the device.
One alternative to the paired sets of cutting members is to have a single set of cutting members with orthogonally arranged blades. In essence, the two cutting members of the other cubing egg slicers combined into a single set. In one pass, the egg mass is cut lengthwise and widthwise to form the cubes. However, this forces a user to cube the egg and prevents the user from selecting egg slices.
An issue common to each of the cubing egg slicers is that there is no structure to restrain the egg slices after the first cut has been made. Thus, after the first cut is made, the egg portions tend to fall or list away from each other. A user may have to collect these after the cutting. Additionally, when transporting the egg portions from the slicer to a serving dish, for instance, one must be careful when grasping multiple egg portions at a time, which are fragile and the yolk portion may fall away from the white portion if not properly supported. Furthermore, slicers employing a pair of sets of cutting members may require a user to manually hold the egg slices upward while the other set of cutting members is brought into contact with the egg portions.
It is common for the base holder, the portion that supports the food or egg mass, to have recesses or slots for receiving the cutting members. This allows the cutting member, whether it be a wire or a blade, to pass all the way through the egg or food mass. However, it is equally as common for some of the egg mass to be separated from the egg portions and driven into the holder slots. This can make clean up difficult as the egg may become pressed into the slot.
Accordingly, there has been a need for an improved device or apparatus for partitioning an egg or other food mass, such as an egg slicer.